WHO’S the broker for the about-to-be-marketed Americas Tower – Lazard Freres or the Japanese?

As we reported on Saturday, Lazard Freres won the institutional broker beauty contest to offer 1177 Avenue of the Americas to an elite group of potential buyers. Investors are flush with capital and ready to buy – but the confusion over who’s authorized to sell the building has caused quite a stir.

Investor Leon Charney was approached by a Japanese broker that he declined to identify, also offering the Class A trophy. “We have the resources to do it,” Charney told us. “If we arrive at something workable, I have talked to my bankers and have the financing in place. It fits into our rhythm.”

Meanwhile, Norman Sturner, chairman of Murray Hill Properties, says he’s been negotiating with folks in Japan to buy the 1.01 million square-footer for $400 million.

While other trophies have gone for as much as $550 a square foot, original anchor tenant PricewaterhouseCoopers is there “long-term and dirt cheap.”

Our better informed sources also advise that neither building owner KGA & A, its parent, Kumagai Gumi, nor its subsidiaries have been taken over by the Japanese government, nor will the government have a say in who gets to buy the building.

Still, “It’s a complicated ownership,” noted Charney – and that may be the cause of this seemingly multiple offering.

“There have been a lot of Japanese brokers claiming to represent the building’s bank,” another New York institutional broker advised. “But Lazard’s got it.”

And while Lazard Freres may truly have the ball in its court, Sturner, Charney, and what appears to be a fast-growing line of bidders are still hoping to score.

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Donald J. Trump has begun the transformation of Delmonico’s at 59th Street and Park Avenue into the luxurious Trump Park Avenue condominium.

Under the hand of architect Costas Kondylis, the years of grime will soon be sandblasted to reveal the desert-colored bricks. Retail spaces are also to be redesigned with bright red awnings while new windows will be installed throughout.

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Julien J. Studley – the man not the firm – was just appointed vice chairman of the New School. . . Broker Mark E.Weiss left the firm, Julien J. Studley, to join Newmark as executive vice president and partner. . . When World Trade Center owner Larry Silverstein phoned Insignia Financial Group Chairman Andrew Farkas last September to tell him he’d been selected to be honored at the UJA-Federation luncheon held at the Pierre last week, Farkas tried to get out of it, saying he didn’t deserve the honor. But Farkas admitted he would “run three times naked around Central Park for Larry,” so there he stood receiving the award. But Farkas instantly turned the tables, awarding Silverstein the glass trophy instead to applause from friends like Ian Schrager and Stephen Ross.

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The far West Side will be designed by the team of Arquitectonica and Cooper Robertson & Partners, the city’s Economic Development Corp. decided yesterday.

The future revenue streams will also be identified through a rezoning and retaxing study to be conducted by Cushman & Wakefield with Economics Research Associates along with the city’s budget office. At theWaldorf-Astoria on Monday, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff told a meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Editors that the 25-block area near the Javits Center only has 132 households. It looks like they may get company soon.

Doctoroff later told us the New York Stock Exchange and the city are still discussing the development of a new building across from the current exchange on Wall Street.

“We just need to work out the financial details,” Doctoroff said. Easier said than done.

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Even traditional institutional owners are responding to the lethargic leasing market and seesawing business environment. Although Rockefeller Center is still more than 95 percent leased, it has about 40 small spaces available sized from 23,534 square feet on down, with the majority under 5,000 square feet.

To compete in an environment with multiple options – including spectacular spaces at half the final cost downtown – Rockefeller Center is rolling out a figurative red carpet.

Last week, its Tishman Speyer owner-operators cracked out the lobsters and clams for a broker shindig while advising they would be flexible on lease terms.

Rock Center will sign new leases with no minimum terms, turnkey pre-built spaces for leases of 7.5 years or more, cut asking rents to the mid-$60 a foot and allow cancellations within the first five years with 90 days notice and – the brokers get paid in full at signing.

Lydia Sklar, President of Sklar Realty Group said, “Theyare exploring several alternatives in a very stagnant marketplace, and they are being very creative and flexible.”